and energy. frk an energy state we need to tap our own vast resource. i would echo the thought of many in this room. it's my hope we can work together and responsibly reform the program, maximize our revenues and maintain the highway trust fun for future. we need to put people back to work. this can be done with many of the reforms we've discussed and the longer we wait the more expensive it will be and more of our roads and bridges will continue to be deficit. i pledge to work together and i yield back the rest of my time. >> thank you very much. yes, representative for three minutes. >> thank you, senator boxer and thank you for the rest of the house and senate colleges for getting the transportation reauthorize bill to conference. i'm hopeful we can report out a bill that all of us can be proud to support. in order for that to happen we're going to have to work in a bipartisan manner and abandon some of the poison pills that

have been discussed such as the keystone pipeline and some environmental stream lining provisions. there's bipartisan support for some common sense stream lining measures but the language attached to house to bill goes too far and undercuts deeper. i have some concern on the keystone pipe len and question the benefit to american consumers. that's what the normal environmental review process is supposed to evaluate. that's the administration's objection to this provision and one that should make at it nonstarter for everyone. the senate bill includes the projects of notion, regional significance program that we established in current law. when we wrote safety, we recognized the traditional transportation programs were insufficient to finance many projects of national or multi-state regional significance. the projects of national and regional significance program is designed to deal with this

problem. the senate retains this program but this program is subject to appropriations and it may not be comprehensive enough to address freight congestion. on transit it appears we're all on the same page again in support of maintaining the stable source of funding for public transportation programs. although there's some transit program and policy issues to discuss i'm optimistic the bill can be done quickly. i'm sure all of us have issues we would like to focus on in this bill. another extension, as many people have mentioned, denies certainty and not passing a major bill at this point denies what this economy and this country so desperately needs jobs. i look forward to working with everyone to a passage of the single most important jobs bill in this congress. i thank you and i yield back.

>> thank you. representative teaberry. >> thank you. i thank you for holding this hearing this morning and pleased to be a part of this conference as a member of the ways and means committee with my chairman mr. camp and mr. blumehmaur. we need a highway bill that allows us to live within our means. we hear that a lot from our constituents, balancing those two result and this committee must work to reach an agreement that accepts this new reality. we must have real reforms. real reforms that reduce waste and redundancy that we hear about from luxury cal transportation officials and state transportation officials with respect to our highway program something you mr. chair hahn has been involved with, been mentioned by mr. young and others. i would like to re-emphasize those reforms as part of a final

package that goes forward. the agreement must also include a strengthened maritime title. by reforming the harbor maintenance trust fund with provisions such as the one sponsored by our colleague in the house, representative charles busconi along with other provision and policies that will ensure u.s. maritime industry is competitive with the rest of the world are very important as we move forward. these reforms combined with what's already been mentioned a number of times the keystone excell pipeline, a big infrastructure program are key for a bill that results in job creation. mr. chairman i look forward twourk and the rest of our colleagues to produce a bill. >> congresswoman brown. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman, and senator boxer is not here and let me just say i know it's not

anyone in this room but i'm very happy to be on this conference and many members in the house not anyone in this room constantly goes to the floor and talks about the senate and i say thank god for the united states senate particularly with this transportation bill because they have set the example for what we need to do to move forward not putting issues that's not germain to the transportation bill. transportation is the engine that put american people to work. our competition is already there. you look at the chinese they are putting $350 billion into transit and what we're doing we're trying to for the first time since ronald reagan cut the funding for transit. so there are many, many areas that i think possibly could agree on a one stop kind of permitting process so we can cut down on the amount of time for super projects. let me take this time to say that i support amtrak 100%.

amtrak has a ridership of about 29 million passengers. we need to continue to invest in it. what our country needs right now is a surface transportation bill that strengthens our infrastructure and as someone said that was just talking and talking not walking to walk put the american people to work. thank you mr. chairman and i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you so much. we'll move to representative shuster followed by representative cummings. >> thank you, chairman boxer and congratulations onning the chair of this conference. i look forward to working with you and all my colleagues in a bipartisan manner. first i want to start off by saying i agree with what senator inhofe said that transportation infrastructure is a core function of government and the fact i go back to adam smith and what the founding fathers as they listened to adam smith as he argued the three things the government should provide for

citizens is security, justice and erecting and maintaining public works to facilitate commerce. i fully encourage senator inhofe and with the founding fathers. but also i would like to remind my colleague, senator durbin mentioned the last time we did a transportation bill it was bipartisan but, in fact, the last two times it was bipartisan but the economic situation was far different than we face today. the economy was strong the last two times we passed transportation bills. the trust fund was flush with money. and we did have congressionally directed funding. but we also today face unsustainable deficits and debt, so we need to make sure we're moving forward with a bill that is paid for and i might add in a responsible way not smoke mirrors but to make sure we pay for this and pay for it in the right way. i also think there are things we've added to this, the keystone pipeline for one, it will improve our energy, the ability to get energy and create

jobs because i also believe that this bill can be a job creator, can improve the economy, but key to what we believe in the house are the reforms, the stream lining reforms. as many of you know it takes on average 14 to 15 years to build a major construction project, the highway construction project in this country. the states lack the necessary flexibility to decide what the greatest transportation needs are in their states and also i might add putting mandates on them that restrict how they can spend the money and coming from pennsylvania with 5,000 deficient bridges it's unconscionable for me to go to state and say you have to spend it on bike paths where it could cause death to people on the roadways if we don't repair bridges. i believe that we have a historic opportunity to reform transportation for the first time in the over 50 years that we've had a highway bill and i just want to look at one project i saw just a week ago.

$680 million project. if we put our reforms in which we believe will reduce that feel of a major project, that project alone on interest alone we would save $60 to $90 million. you multiple that across a $260 billion highway bill, and what you have there is tremendous savings for the american people so we can do more with less. so i look forward to concluding this in a successful way and in a bipartisan way. with that i yield back. >> thank you so much. representative cummings. >> thank you very much, senator boxer. i want to thank you and senator inhofe for your leadership. the choices we make in this conference will determine whether our communities become more livable and whether our fellow citizens will have the mobility that will enable them to move ahead in their lives. the choice we make will affect millions of jobs in our nation. in a report released last year

the bipartisan policy center found overwhelming evidence that the united states is failing in its highways, bridges, and transit systems and consistently falling short in making the infrastructure investments needed to provide for the long term needs of our growing population and economy. before we discuss a single provision we should recommit ourselves to the value of investing in your own nation. from the beginning of our public the development of infrastructure has been a shared national priority. i deeply wish we had been able to right in the passing the house a comprehensive transportation authorization bill in the bipartisan manner that has been characterized by previous house bills. as the house has failed to act, however, the senate passed legislation and must form the basis for our discussion. while there are several provisions i will recommend to strengthen the legislation i

note that the senate bill reauthorizes the disadvantaged business enterprise program and extends the program to real programs. i strongly support these programs and ask for information from the united states department of transportation regarding the continued need for these programs. >> without objection we'll do that. >> let me also make clear as a ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform i'll strongly oppose any proposal that might be raised to use our federal workers as a piggy bank to pay for a highway bill or any other legislation, particularly when we have refused to ask the very richest in our nation to invest one additional penny. that said time is short. i encourage all members network together with the profound sense of urgency and dedication to draft a final bill that is equal to our nation's needs and with that i yield back. >> thank you very much. we move to representative bishop and then representative bowell.

>> is this working? this is working. madam chair, i feel honored to be able to address a handful of my colleagues and so many senate staffers today. the idea that somebody from the resource committee is on this highway bill means that somebody screwed up somewhere. on the highway portion there's a whole lot of very good reforms in the senate version and even more good reforms in the house version. the keystone pipeline is an important issue. and the restore act most of which is good is on this bill as well but there are some extraneous issues that bring attention to my committee. extending pelt for one additional year is nice but not necessary when the house has already pass ad long term version that gives local communities on when they will get their pelt money and has funding to srs. the land and conversation fund

is authorized through the year 2015. that means its current authorization is longer than the authorization of this base bill and yet the idea of authorizing it or extending it for another seven years strange, especially when it adds $1.5 billion of new mandatory billing which has to be offset. that's $700 million a year in mandatory spending which is almost double what this program has been appropriate forward each of the last five years and $250 million more than the president requested for the fund. when we have questions of the division between state and federal split of these monies, whether the grant money is being useful or part of a slush fund or whether the purposes of this fund are being used for some good programs but other that have been abusive, and this provision has had absolutely no hearing on either the house or the senate side, if this continues in here it means this will will be less likely to be financially balanced and also create additional and unneeded

opposition to this particularly bill. so once again i say as somebody from the west looking at these provisions i find them strange. i look forward networking with at least most of my members in here to fining solution for a long term funding for the highway program. thank you. >> thank you so very much. representative bowell. >> thank you, madam chairman and thank you for your hard work. we appreciate it. i've known you from a distance for some time and appreciate your work. i've known chairman mika on a personal basis for a long time. we've traveled and worked together. i thought we could have a transportation bill right up to the fact we couldn't have one. but i think we still can. i'm an optimist. i'm one of the folks "around the table" when we plant a seed things will grow. it will rain and so on. but it's time to fish or cut bait. we got to get this going. this country has so much at

stake. i've been an advocate for alternative fuels my entire career here and the legislature. i lived in the nato assignment and saw what happened to communities, people just like us when they don't have fuel for their car or transportation or their delivery truck and so on. we don't need to go there. we need to do it. it seemed like everything has been said. we all haven't said it. i wonder madam chairman, could you bring to later session some expert that could really tell us what keystone really means? you know, i think we all understand that the jobs constructs, not much question but there seems to be lot of diverse opinion about what happens to the finished product and what it means to the gas at the pump. i would like to know. i would like to know from an expert, if there is such a possibility. i want us to get moving. i don't want something to happen

in your districts or mine and we have a lot of deficient bridges but i can remember the pain that we all felt when if bridge in minnesota went down. we should not let that happen. our country was built on compromise. a lot of you studied it. i have too. and it's made us what we are. let don't figure we have to have it one way or the other. the house has to work with the senate. the senate has network with the house. we have a platform network from. madam chairman you've showed your ability to bring people together. so, you know what, i'm counting on you doing it here. don't want you to feel any pressure or anything, but you've demonstrated that and i want to be supportive. i want to see you get a bill out, get people to work and get those contractors busy and let's don't have another bridge fall somewhere because we couldn't do our work.

with that i yield back and thank you for your efforts. thank you. >> thank you. i see senator schumer. senator schumer, this is your moment, sir. three minutes to you. followed by representative butler. how do i say it? >> herrera butler. >> i'm so sorry. okay. i got it now. yeah. >> chairman boxer, it's a pleasure to be here. i want to thank you for your amazing leadership on this bill. you and senator inhofe deserve real commendation for coming together on an outstanding bill in a bipartisan way. it's just what america wants. we want jobs. we want infrastructure and we want it to be done in a bipartisan way where the parties are not fighting and you have achieved that on one of the most significant bills here. so i thank you and i hope the

example you have set, the two of you, will be the theme of this conference. and whatever one's ideology is, left, right or center, i hope everyone in this room can agree investing in infrastructure is a fundamental function of government. i remind my republican colleagues that the first big federal investment in infrastructure was started not by a republican but by a whig, henry clay, whig partying the predecessor of the republican party and henry clay decided internal improvements were something that the federal government should do. those were highways through the appalachains. there's a few that say federal

government shouldn't be involved in highway, road, but they are a distinct minority. americans of all three parties agree, all across the country and especially in my home state of new york there are roads, bridges and transit systems in need of serious repair and at the same time there's the construction industry, i'm sure it's been talked about, that is so out of work and this is the best way to put them back. so, i'm is going to skip all that part of my speech because i know people have waited a long time. i want to just make a few quick points. the senate bill gives states like new york the tools and resources we need to provide a large legacy for public transportation systems more adequately. a lot of my colleagues on this conference don't have much mass transit. but for us mass transit is for you what highways are in new york city. we get 3.5 million people on and off manhattan island.

it's an amazing thing. it's an economic engine. it's close to a metropolitan area. some places need wide-open spaces. some cities are dense. new york is one of them. we can't do it without mass transit. we serve 2.6 billion trips a year to commuters in a 5,000 square mile area that covers about 20 million people. we can't continue to ignore the backlog. oil ask unanimous consent that the rest of my statement be put in the record. we need help on mass transit and there are a number of us on this committee who will fight very, very hard for it. it's important to us as roads are tom of you. thank you. >> thank you so much, senator. now i will get it right and we will hear from representative herrera butler. >> thank you, madam chair. it's exciting to be a part of this committee.

it's time for a plan that will strengthen our nation's transportation infrastructure. a strong transportation system is important really as important to my corner of washington state as to any other region in the country. it's a link for our economy from van cover to olympia. a safe, efficient movement of people and products, that means jobs for my region and all of our regions. i look forward networking together with members of both parties, from both side roft opportune da in order to keep our transportation system funded in a responsible way. i'm here to find solutions. folks in southwest washington want to see the best possible agreement from this committee and i'm going to do my best to make that happen. in this group we have both solid experience, madam chair, and new ideas. both are needed to produce the solutions that we need. for instance the house version included innovative ideas that would save taxpayer dollars

while keeping our commitment to safe and reliable infrastructure. so i understand that there are also challenges and differences we're going to have to work out and the biggest, course, is a dwindling highway trust fund that must be strengthened. i've heard a lot of the merits of the senate bill and i laud a lot of those merits. one of the things that neither bill does is provide a long term solution for how we'll pay for an ageing infrastructure. we spend to it a certain point but we need to come up with those solutions pap lot of us around this table believe in infrastructure and like the senator from new york said, it is something that the federal government needs to be paying attention to and engaged in and i think the longer -- the longer term bill that's paid for responsibly will best serve all of our constituents and the american people. i'm ready tropical up my sleeves and get to work. thank you again for this opportunity. >> thank you very much.

representative tim bishop folded by representative buchon. >> thank you very much marks dam chair. thank you for convening this conference committee. i look forward to work you and our colleagues in a bipartisan manner to put americans back to work and repair and improve our nation's infrastructure. this committee has before at it real opportunity to complete what is like tloib largest jobs package in the 112th congress. while i think many would agree it's taken us far too long to get to this point we must strive to find common ground and work together to complete this bill lest we waste another construction season opinion none of us have ever seen a perfect piece of legislation but map 21 is very good legislation. the bill passed overwhelmingly in the senate with a bipartisan majority of 74-22 and it's fully paid for. estimates suggest that map 21 will save 1.8 million jobs and create up to an additional 1 million jobs. we have to get this done as

quickly oppose. while there are some sections of the senate bill that i would like see massaged like graduated driver's license provision, projects of regional and national importance, i strongly encourage the senate bill. i'm troubled by portions of the house bill that would undermine our nation's environmental laws, eliminate local input on major infrastructure projects and tie the hands of federal regulators. i am however very supportive of a provision in the house fwoil affirm congress's bill in allocating funding from the harbor maintenance fund. i hope this provision can be expanded to ensure all ports including small and medium ports benefit from better utilization of the harbor maintenance trust fund. i hope we can ad stroons our respective chambers a bill that the american people can be proud of and put people back to work. i stand ready network with any and all members of the this panel to achieve that goal.

i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you, representative buchon. >> as a freshman member of congress i quickly learned about our nation's transportation needs. i know that everybody in this room can agree that we desperately need to create certainty, producing bill that includes significant reforms, responsible funding and covering the longest period of time that we can manage tro duce. in this fiscal climate we need to do more with less. we need to stream line the environmental review process conso lie did it duplicative programs and spend our transportation dollars on projects that move people and products. let's give our states flexibility by eliminating mandates. my home state of indiana has a model transportation program. thanks to the innovative ideas of governor mitch daniels indiana has invested over $6.5 billion in transportation projects. part of this investment includes the construction of interstate

69 through my district, finally connecting the third largest city in indiana evansville to our state's capital indianapolis. this project had been planned since 1965. and it's just now being built. the fact of the matter is government does not have enough money to meet all of our infrastructure needs. we need to involve the private-sector in this process. every state should have the opportunity to replicate indiana's successes without being punished for it financially. in addition we need to make sure the funding formulas a located to each state are done fairly. inn and a dozen additional states have been donor states for over three decades. we get about 92 cents on a dollar. as late as the '80s only 78 cents on the $. we need a formula that provides adequate funding to each state and provide each state with dollars that they contribute to the trust fun. the senate bill does not

accomplish these goals and puts indiana and other states at risk for significant cuts for funding by eliminating the equity bonus program. i look forward to a bill that treats all states equally and create jobs and rebuilding our nation's infrastructure. i yield back. >> now, is mr. croft here? no. so we will go, if we comes we'll definitely go back to him. we're going hear now from representative hannah. >> thank you, madam chairman. i would like to thank john mika for allowing me the privilege of being on this committee. i watched him and his staff work tirelessly for the last year and a half and i think everyone has done their best to produce the best possible bill and i'm privileged to be a witness to

that. as a contractor for possible 26 years and now a freshman in congress, identify personally had hundreds of employees, identify completed thousands of projects large and small. and i'm also a member of the operating engineers for over 25 years. what i know is that many millions of people in this country could be put back to work immediately if we were to do our job here today. what i know is that they sit and wonder why they are not back to work. knowing that investments in infrastructure are, indeed just that, as was the national railroad, the national highway system and all of that's. these are not just expenses, they are investments in the future that, indeed, pay for themselves. i look forward to working on this committee. i look forward to working with all of you to the best of our ability. and i have watched these extensions go on both as a

private citizen waiting for work, knowing that prices frankly have never been lower in this country. people are bidding lower and lower because the process is becoming more and more competitive. now is the time to finish this. we're past the time for extensions. this two year bill will soon enough be a one year bill as mr. mika's bill will soon enough be a four year bill. i'm tired of that. i think the country is tired of that. i look forward to working with you all. >> thank so you much. i want to note that the associated general contractors of america are very strong behind the senate bill and hoping we get our job done. i would like to call now on representative sutherland. >> thank you. i would like to commend you and chairman mika for your leadership and it's a great privilege to serve in my first conference so thank you for